Sales Training. Leadership Coaching

20 Hours of Goal Planning

As part of my sales training for my clients, we hold monthly telephone calls with small groups of sales people. On those calls, we talk about deals they struggle with, opportunities they see and tactics on how to land those prospects.

On a recent call, I was asked about goal setting. Specifically, “How much time should we spend in goal setting activities?”

My answer surprised them. I suggested that for every hour they spend setting goals, they should spend 20 hours planning them out. 20 hours!!!??!

The idea with “goal planning” is to give yourself a roadmap of EXACTLY how you will accomplish the goal.

Doubling Your Business

Let’s say you have a goal to double your business in the next year. Pretty awesome goal I’d say! But before you hit the streets to accomplish it, write it out on a piece of paper, place it in front of you and set aside 4 hours for Goal Planning.

How do prospects see you in your sales role? Is it possible to change how you are perceived? In this episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan share philosophies and exercises you can implement today to strengthen how you are seen or change your perception with prospects. By looking internally at your mindset and seeking out others for feedback, you’ll be able to begin to shape your perception. Veteran Sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale give practical approaches like practicing your language and auditing your behaviors to help shape how others see you. Whether you are just settling into a new role or are a veteran, there’s always an opportunity to influence how you are perceived by prospects.

Can intent make or break a sale? Intent is the final piece of the Advanced Selling Podcast Inner Game Trinity. Veteran Sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale share stories of how they came to embrace intent. They’ll talk about being taught from an early age to focus on the wrong things, which translates into the wrong approach for sales. In this episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan will give you a new way to think about your role in the sales process and how the right intent will improve your sales process significantly.

Are you too attached to your sales opportunities? Attachment can wreck your sales process. Detachment is another critical element of the Advanced Selling Podcast Inner Game. In this episode, Bill and Bryan will help you identify if you are too attached. They will offer philosophies to help you be more detached from outcomes. Most importantly, they will illustrate the impact detachment can have when you interact with prospects. Veteran Sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale will show you how detachment can take your sales game to the next level.

Do you have an abundance or scarcity mindset? Abundance is one of the core pieces of the Advanced Selling Podcast Inner Game. Veteran Sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale will take a deep-dive and walk through their own definition of abundance. They’ll share their personal experiences in observing and overcoming a scarcity mindset. In this episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan will give you the takeaways you need to start approaching your life and your profession from a place of abundance.

In this book, he addresses how life demands effort, but not struggle. As he defines it, “struggle is effort, laced with negative emotion.”

In sales, we struggle a lot, don’t we? Struggle to get an appointment. Struggle to get to the right person. Struggle to position our product in the best possible light. Struggle to close the sale.

But, should we feel ‘struggle?’ I don’t think so.

In markets that are abundant, you should be on the lookout for “ideal fit” between your customer’s pain and aspirations, and your solution. If there is no ideal fit, then you must move on.

Traditionalists among you will say, “No, Bill, you must be persistent and press hard to make the sale.”

Really? Is that really what you think? Sounds like struggle to me.

Instead….

1. Be clear about the value you bring. How can you determine an “ideal fit” if you aren’t quite sure of the value you bring and what problems it will solve for the customer? Bullet-list the elements of your value so you can become clearer about it.

Another bulleted list you should make is the characterization of your ideal client. Do they have money? Are they interested in growth? Do they look outside for help? Do they respect your ideas?

These two lists should be the filters that you shoot prospects through to see if you should spend one more minute with them.

2. Align behavior with purpose. If you struggle in a component of the sales process, say lead generation, then you aren’t looking at it correctly. I had a mentor who said, “If you’re feeling pressure, you’re doing something wrong.” This is why I say, “align with purpose.” This means to state what your purpose is in your profession.

If it’s to make a lot of money for yourself, then you aren’t operating from a place of High Intent. Every thing that happens to you in the sales process will be seen as a threat to your core purpose.

But if your purpose is to be a hero to your target audience…or to serve them exquisitely…or to solve the biggest problems they have, then you are “on purpose” and in sync with what they want. You both want the same ting.

And when you are on purpose, prospecting behavior will never be a struggle.

3. Take the pressure off early. Tell the customer upfront that it’s OK if this is not a fit. Why would you have any other point of view than that? If it’s not a fit in his/her eyes, are you going to continue to hang around? No, of course not.

But by saying it…out loud…you separate yourself from the hundreds of amateurs who have come before you.

When you apply pressure, you are not in-disposable. Your are DISPOSABLE.And if you are disposable (or feel like you are), you will struggle in the profession.

Salespeople tend to focus most of their attention on closing the sale, but hardly ever celebrate the sales process itself. What happens when we go right to the close? We vault. In skipping critical pieces of the sales process you jeopardize the sale. Veteran Sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale share the reasons why salespeople vault and ideas for enhancing your own sales process. Being too attached to the sale or receiving mixed messages from your manager can have a big impact on your success. In this episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan will equip you with the ideas and approaches you need to win through every step of the sale.

Last week, I got called by a CPA firm who wanted training for their people. This you must know: CPAs are not very good at selling. It’s not that they don’t have the expertise. That’s not it at all.

It’s that selling spooks them. It’s not in their comfort zone.

So, when I get a call from a professional services firm (or any company), I always start with one simple question: Do you have a platform?

After the weird looks they give me, I go on to educate them to what a “Platform” is.

Platform: definition, A position in the market that you occupy where people look to you for expertise.

Physical Platform

Just as you would speak at a conference from a podium (platform) the same thing applies here. In the physical world, it is you speaking from the stage, on a topic that you have some degree of expertise in, where all eyes are on you.

There, you don’t have to fight for attention. You ARE the show.

In the sales & marketing world, your platform could be a variety of things. LinkedIN is a platform. Any kind of social media could be a platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). Your email list is a platform. A podcast is a platform.

Simply, it is a place where you command attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

Your platform is a positioning tool that raises you above the din of competition and market confusion.

About Me

I am a sales development leader and experimenter. I have worked with B2B sales groups and executives since 1990. My philosophies and strategies have fueled explosive growth in sales and profits for my clients. I am passionate about sharing my ideas about selling, business, life, money and meaning.
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